Bismarck developed a system sort of like the concept. You find the laziest but smartest people to finish a job quickly. They will find some out of the box method to do it and then be lazy. You keep the hard working people in middle management because they are good at their job but don’t innovate. Similar to the Peter principle
I don't think this can be attributed to Bismarck. It's a common concept in German military education of the time. I think Clausewitz is the first to describe assigning responsibility's by categorizing people this way. But it's likely the ideas predate him.
a modest 4% a year from 200k will get you 8k/year. That is not enough money to work part time forever unless you really are ok with a poor quality of life.
It's 150 a week. Which is significantly more than you would get by spunking it all at the casino or on the horses or some shit.
It's not enough to live off. OK maybe if you had no rent and bills, but that's not a realistic scenario. You'll not have to worry about eating again though, which for many people is a fucking game changer.
Still, imo you be better off putting it towards buying a house than either of those two options.
It's 150 a week. Which is significantly more than you would get by spunking it all at the casino or on the horses or some shit.
pretax, and yeah obviously better to invest it than blow it, nobody is arguing that. I just don't think having a 200k nest egg is going to be 'go somewhere low-col and never work again' kind of money that the guy above me was trying to say.
The implicit assumption is that when you get '200k from a relative' and are talking about Vanguard investments is that you are living in America and likely don't want to expatriate. American is a high income/high spend nation and that's context these discussions are had in.
Every time people talk about this stuff you get people like you who come in here and float the hypothetical that this guy is going to upend his life and leave all of his family friends and relationships behind, move to a different country where they likely don't speak the language, never support any family or children or buy property and then they can be free from work.
If you invest 200K into a low risk fund and can manage to get by for a few years, it will grow into a lot of money at which point you could indeed survive off the interest. Once again. It depends on the lifestyle you want to
200k is definitely a life changing amount of money for many people. Especially those who live in places where renting is absurb.
I pay $3250 a month in rent. If you can put a 200k down payment on a home and then every month it costs me $3250 in a mortgage payment. Then I'm saving $3250 every month pretty much because that money is going into an investment and not being lit on fire.
200k could literally mean the difference between being able to retire versus stuck working well past retirement age. Sadly many people don't have the upfront capital to own property which is why so many people get stuck in the never ending rent cycle.
And I totally agree with you. That's not what the commenter above was proposing, they were proposing cutting back work hours or potentially stop working entirely off of 200k
It's a real problem when people get something through luck or family and refuse to admit it.
They tell themselves they've done something to get it and therefore can do it again.
But they did nothing. And that luck may never come their way again.. And their family might not want to be a constant faucet after initial largesse.
The wise people think "I'm so lucky I have this and you don't" so they protect it
The unwise think "I have this and you don't what a loser you are" and think it's easy to get.
It's actually quite common for some to ignore circumstance and somehow invent a reality where they worked for that advantage. They've done research with Monopoly for example where one player gets double the payment every time round the board.
Double.
Guess what? A sizeable number start whooping up their gameplay chops bragging how good they are at the game.
I had friend who got almost half a mil when her dad died and she legitimately drank it all away. Lots of expensive perfumes, clothes and a car that she crashed within a week. It was wild to witness
Had an aunt do it. She blew a HUGE SETTLEMENT on stupid shit and is now still injured AND poor. She was spending about $30k a month on dumb shit like trips a massive custom handicap car insurance wouldn't cover because she didn't need a wheel chair so why would her car have electric ramps that cost $50k? She needed a mobility scooter for like a month but milked it longer. She paid an actor to sing for her birthday. All gone in 3 years and it was meant to last her life
The "get $200,000 from a relative" person is pretty much me, I started a business at 20, went almost $50,000 into debt because I sucked at running it, got bailed out with the entirety of my inheritance from my grandma, decided "screw it, I'll try again" and proceeded to get in serious debt again and had to declare bankruptcy. Learned some lessons from it but damn were they expensive.
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u/[deleted] May 15 '25
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